food stamps and we would not have to have people struggling. host: before i get a response, what would be your definition of a living wage? guest it is different for every area. caller: in our area, look much housing is. you cannot make enough money to even rent a home. one more thing -- i love president obama but my anger is when they went into the negotiations for health care, they took the public auction off the table. to me, that is the foundation of it. like she said about medicare for all, there is a choice. that is real choice of when you can pay for your government health care. host: thank you for your call. guest: you raised a number of

important points and it is great to hear your voice from west virginia. i am looking forward to going there soon. we have to include more voices and all the debates prefers presidential debate is coming up in denver and i think we will be in virginia tech before the debate. i know this was the side of the killing of 32 people. the brady campaign against gun violence has waged a campaign to get jim lehrer of pbs who will be posted the first presidential election to ask the question about gun violence. another. you don't hear much debate between the republican candidate mitt romney and president obama -- we will open up the debate and expand the debate as we so often do on "democracy now, "to a third party candidates. we will be in denver, to and we will have third-party candidates responding to the same questions being put to mitt romney and president obama.

we will broadcast democracy now.org and on radio as well. you raised the issue of the critical vote as we traveled through pennsylvania. a whole issue of voter suppression and having been in charlotte, a great civil-rights city, where the students from the historical black college in 1960 set up a lunch counter in to grant them and yet, what do we see today? state after state, efforts to suppress voting rights instead of expanding them. not enough people vote in this country. in pennsylvania, there is legislation now on the books that could disenfranchise between 750,000-1 million people. president obama won by 600,000 boats in pennsylvania last time. this really does determine the election. i don't care who you are for. this will determine the

election. it is a huge problem or the country. we should be celebrating voters going to the polls, not putting impediments in their way. host: the radio program "democracy now" turns 25 this year? guest: we started in 1996. we were just on radio. the week of september 11, 2001, we started on the first television station in new york city on public access. then it just caught on like wildfire beyond the election and more television stations aired us and radio stations and npr stations and pbs stations all over the country. we just went on pbs in washington, d.c. and whuc at howard university and we are now on over 1100 stations. it was originally from pacifica radio. that was founded in the bay area 60 years ago. over 300 radio stations take it all over the world.

i think this is because of the hunger for independent voices. and to bend, authentic voices -- independent, authentic voice is all over the world. host: we are talking with amy goodman, the host of "to mobocracy now" and author of "the silent majority." caller: good morning. you got your priorities right -- war is hell. if we could negotiate with stalin, we could negotiate with iran. as far as business, we have the highest corporate tax in the world. can adjust lower theirs down to sit -- 15%. guest: i agree that war is hell. i co-authored this book with

dennis moynihan as we travel the country and broadcast from all over, bringing out these issues and engaging in discussion about what will make us safer in this country. ultimately, it is about shoring up this country. that will increase our national security. there's a deep concern i have as we covered grass roots movement around the country of seeing the wisconsin uprising that happened earlier this year -- last year that inspired occupy all over the country -- we have an act in this country that says we don't think it is a good thing for soldiers to march through the streets of this country. i think people across the political spectrum feel that way. it's interesting how the authorities have gotten around this. since 9/11, billions of dollars have gone into local police departments.

they are buying tanks and drones. the level of surveillance is unprecedented. the associated press just did a pioneering series on the new york police department surveillance and monitoring the whole community even beyond the new york. the yale university president put out a statement that this is unacceptable to be surveiling students. a new jersey landlord sought in an apartment that there was all the surveillance equipment and such. the reasonable response to call the police but it was a police. we had a city university of new york's student who was showing up in the police department documents. his parents did not want him to go on the show. they did not want him to be targeted but he said we already

are. he was named and he said he went on a camping trip with his friends for a weekend. it was fully detailed, everything they ate on the weekend and everything they did. the police report said the students were so extreme that they pray four times a day. this infiltrator was so stupid that we pray five times a day. not one lead has come out of these thousands of investigations of incidents of surveillance and monitoring. host: what do you say to people who argue that because of the attacks on 9/11 and subsequent attacks on the united states -- the attempted bombing in times square, the underwear bombing on the flight into detroit -- that we have to be more vigilant and there has to be more

surveillance and there has to beat more guarding of the united states and the homeland. guest: i think we have to be careful but i don't buy colesville surveillance of and -- i don't think wholesale surveillance is affected. it does not decrease -- it does not increase our national security to do this. it threatens it. when communities feel under siege, they closed down and don't communicate. when the oklahoma city was blown up, police did not monitor other communities around the country.

we think that is not acceptable to take one individual who has committed a crime and say the group that he comes from is somehow culpable and you have to crack down on them. there would have been a nationwide outcry if that had happened after timothy mcveigh. that is what has happened with the arab american community in this country. host: you talk about the growth of the program "democracy now." what change has there been in the focus for the purpose of the radio program as it has moved into television over the last 16 years? guest: it continues to be a forum for people to speak for themselves and have debate and

discussion about the most important issues of the day. my brother david and i wrote a book and we should all be exceptions to the rulers. in this high-tech digital age, all we get is static, that they'll of distortion and misrepresentation and half truths. what we need the media to give this is the dictionary definition of fact, criticism, opposition, unwanted interference. we need immediate covers power, not covers for power. we need a media that is the for the state, not for the state. we need immediate that covers the movement and makes the history. host: here is another tweet -- guest: i think we see people

rising up all over the country on all different issues. we saw wisconsin and that was 150,000 people in one day. it was the largest protest wisconsin had ever seen. there were concerned that governor walker was going after public unions and their right to collectively bargain. they said he had not run on this. i was interviewing in the state capital of madison, the oshkosh prison guards. they were protesting governor walker. i interviewed a gentleman with spectacles who was walking outside and has signed said "irs auditors against walker." he voted for governor walker but he is protesting. it is so interesting. who talked about the issue with the nfl that the refs situation should be settled?

governor walker. when the spotlight is on people and you see what their concerns are, i don't think -- i think we care about people having fair wages. the chicago teachers strike was an amazing uprising. while the media tried to cast it as teachers against the students because students were not going to school, it was the students and their parents marching with the teachers and that to another place where you had to ask who is democrat and who was republican. you had mayor rahm emanuel, mitt romney and paul ryan were

congratulating him. sometimes the democrats and republicans in washington are often more unified than is portrayed. the majority of this people are often the silent majority. you just don't hear them in means -- in mainstream media. host: recall from virginia on our line for independents. caller: good morning. guest: hi. caller: i am harold johnson from richmond, virginia. host: go ahead with your question or comment. caller: ms. goodman, thank you so much what to do for this country. let me ask you a quick question -- when you become a

congressman or house of representatives, you take an oath of office to serve this country. yet, you take another oath from grover norquist saying that you will never raise taxes. i thought we are represented by one constitution and not two constitutions. how can he get away with if you not voted republican in not raising taxes, how does he get away with that? guest: people don't have power but others be so that with power. i think there is a force more power than an egg -- more powerful than any individual. even the president of united states occupies a position that is the most powerful on earth. people all over this country

and the world make their demands clear, there is nothing that can stop those demands from being answered. i mentioned drones' earlier, there is a group that we have been covering called code pink and they are leading a delegation on a dangerous mission. they are american citizens going to pakistan to join with pakistan is. they'll make their way to waziristan, the site of the drama attacks. they are saying there is another face of america that does not support the terrorizing of another nation. that is quite remarkable. all the media should be covering that. it is not about being for or against, it is about presenting a forum for people to speak for themselves and are people taking great risks all over who represent a better america. host: our next call comes from dave in pennsylvania on our line for democrats. caller: i have been following this since freeport, illinois. a lot of people are starting to catch on to that. that is what mitt romney and

bain capital have been doing for years. they take a good company and outsourcing to china. what they do with the other companies, they will go in there and harvest, like you say, they put the minimum down, they buy the company, loaded up with debt, pay their managers and give them big bonuses and below the company up and run the machinery and the workers to death and they do like a car thief does with a car. they run it like a chop shop. they take the best part of the company, sell it off, and the rest they scrap. that is what they do with their employees and the american taxpayer, we pay the company's federally backed up pension funds. guest: you have the formula down. what is happening there is happening all over this country. one of the workers who has worked there for 33 years, when he heard that it was bain capital, they had some hope that there was a human face and they could reach out to mitt romney. this area of northwest illinois is between two swing states. he and another worker at the

plant, they went to delton door, iowa where mitt romney was speaking. he asked mitt romney if he can stop the outsourcing of his jobs. the secret service moved in and everybody started chanting to drown him out. he said he did not understand that the people in the audience were shouting at him that they were communists. here we are, american workers, simply protesting are jobs being sent to communist china and they are calling us communists? host: amy goodman has been our guest for the last 45 minutes. she is the host of "democracy now" and her book is the "silenced majority." she is in the middle of a 100- city tour. there's a good chance she is coming to a city near you.

guest: you can go to democracy now.org. host: thank you for being with us. >> tomorrow, washington journal will talk with third-party candidates in the presidential election. first, green party candidate jill stein will talk about her party's platform and the challenges of running as a third-party candidate in the two party system. that is followed by constitution party candidate virgil goode. he won the constitution party nomination back in april. and then a look at the history and role of third parties, from the anti slavery liberty party to ross perot's reform party. our guest is author donald green. washington journal is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span.

in president obama's weekly address, he talked about the need for congress to help homeowners. then, u.s. house candidate burton parker delivers the republican address on tax policy, job creation, and his campaign in arizona's ninth district, a newly created district in arizona. >> hello, everybody. four years ago this month, a crisis that started out on wall street almost brought down our entire economy. the nation's biggest banks were days away from failing. the stock market -- and millions of american retirement accounts -- were in free-fall. credit froze. lending stopped. and businesses large and small didn't even know if they'd be able to make payroll. it was a moment the likes of which few americans had ever seen. today, we know the biggest cause of that crisis was reckless behavior in the housing market. millions of americans who did

the right and responsible thing -- who shopped for a home, secured a mortgage they could afford, and made their payments on time -- were badly hurt by the irresponsible actions of others. by lenders who sold loans to families who couldn't afford them -- and buyers who knew they couldn't afford them. by speculators who were looking to make a quick buck. and by banks that packaged and sold those risky mortgages for phony profits. when the party stopped, and the housing bubble burst, it pushed our entire economy into a historic recession -- and left middle-class families holding the bag. four years later, the housing market is healing. home sales and construction are up. prices are beginning to rise. and more than a million families who began this year owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, are now back above water.

we're moving in the right direction. but we're not there yet. there are still millions of americans who are struggling with their mortgages, even at a time of historically low rates. now, i know there are some who think that the only option for homeowners is to just stand by and hope that the market has hit bottom. i don't agree with that. that's why my administration teamed up with state attorneys general to investigate the terrible way many homeowners were treated, and secured a settlement from the nation's biggest banks -- banks that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars -- to help families stay in their homes. and that's why we announced new steps to help responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages. already, hundreds of thousands

of americans who were stuck in high-interest loans have been able to take advantage of lower rates and save thousands of dollars every year. that's not only good for those families; it's also good for our economy. when folks are spending less on mortgage payments, they're spending more at local businesses. and when those businesses have more customers, they start hiring more workers. but we can do even more if congress is willing to do their part. back in february i sent congress a plan to give every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgages by refinancing at lower rates. it's a plan that has the support of independent, nonpartisan economists and leaders across the housing industry. but republicans in congress worked to keep it from even getting to a vote. and here we are -- seven months later -- still waiting on congress to act. this makes no sense.

last week, mortgage rates were at historic lows. but instead of helping more and more hardworking families take advantage of those rates, congress was away on break. instead of worrying about you, they'd already gone home to worry about their campaigns. the truth is, it's going to take a while for our housing market to fully recover. but it's going to take a lot more time -- and cause a lot more hurt -- if congress keeps standing in the way. if you agree with me, i hope you'll make your voices heard. call your representative. send them an email. show up at their town hall and tehe